Multiple skin cancers can occur in treated patients, says study

A recent study claims that almost half of the patients treated for skin cancer will again develop the disease within 2 years of the first incidence.

In total, 5,508,374 patients and 13,102,123 skin cancers treated were included in this analysis. Of the patients, 43 percent received treatment for more than one skin cancer. Development of the new skin cancer occurred within 2 years of the initial case.

Notably, a subset consisting of 3 percent of the patients were treated for at least 10 skin cancers, which accounted for 22 percent of all skin cancers treated in the combined cohort.

“Nearly half of patients treated for skin cancer will develop at least one more,” the authors said. “Better data formatting will allow for improved granularity in identifying individuals at high risk for multiple skin cancers and those unlikely to benefit from continued annual surveillance.”

This cohort study used longitudinal claims and electronic health records to analyse the frequency of skin cancer multiplicity. A validated phenotype was used to count individual skin cancers.

However, the study was limited by the absence of high-quality data on the types of skin cancer. In addition, databases and heath records were not designed to capture skin cancer multiplicity well.

“Many patients will develop more than one skin cancer; however, most research to date has examined only case status,” the authors said.